In and out of Lake Rhona

Saturday, 8 January 2022

Lake Rhona has been on my to-do list for a while now, but it's always been a bit hard to schedule as it's a 3 day trip (one day to walk in, one day to walk around the ridge, one day to walk out). We're normally orienteering or away on long weekends and holidays - in fact we would have been in New Zealand if everything had gone to plan. Not this year though! 

The start of the walk is about a half an hour drive from Maydena - which turned into about an hour for us as we got a bit lost on the network of forestry trails.  With no internet access I only had written instructions, while Jo (in the other car that we couldn't communicate with) had map directions - which (and we didn't realise at the time) weren't the same directions that I had.  This meant for some hilarious moments of me running after the other car waving my instructions and gesturing wildly to turnoffs I thought we should have taken.

We eventually found the jam packed car park and set off on the 14km hike sometime after 11. With Zali deciding not to go, the crew was me, Jon, Jett, Toby, Jo, Miriam and Lucy.  

The trail was pretty nice from the start, gently descending to the Gordon River through forest and button grass. The evidence of the 2018/2019 Gell River fire was huge - it wasn't until we were finally at the lake that we could see the distinct line of where the fires stopped. I did some research and it stopped there because the fire fighters put in sprinklers from the lake up the hillside to protect the vegetation.  What a save.

Anyway - after 20 minutes of easy walking we had to cross the Gordon River. There are two ways to do this - on the massive fallen tree (above), or by wading through upstream.

We elected to take the tree option - and it was pretty easy. I'm not sure how easy it would be if it was wet or slippery or partially submerged - we've heard stories of people getting stuck on the other side for days when it's raining. After crossing the river there was miles and miles of this sort of walking..

including a lunch stop at an old farm station called Gordonvale: 

After 12ish kms we finally started the final climb towards the lake. It was arduous climbing the 400m elevation but quite straight forward.

And then we were there..the first glimpses of the lake were amazing:

We were met by a ranger who was doing a week long shift of advising campers where to get water and how to avoid causing further erosion to the fire affected areas.  She said we were welcome to camp on the sand or back off the lake in the bushes. We chose the sand, and quickly got ourselves settled in.  It was around 5pm so we didn't have to wait long before making dinner.  There were about 25 other campers on the beach with us - there was plenty of room and everyone was really friendly.

After dinner we were treated to a lovely sunset back in the direction of the saddle we arrived over:

The next morning our only plan was to walk the 6km return trip up on the ridge to Mt Reid - the peak towering over the lake. Unfortunately Toby's stomach had different plans for the day so after waiting to see if he would improve for an hour or so (it didn't), we decided we needed to get him out in case he got worse - Lake Rhona wasn't the place to be with a bad stomach.  So unfortunately our morning was spent packing.  Luckily this didn't affect Lucy, Jo and Miriam who were able to stick to the original plan. Their photos of the trip from this point looked amazing.

Our walk out was pretty uneventful (in fact almost a bit boring after having done it the opposite way just a day before). Toby's stomach seemed to get better as we went (Lucy had supplied some good medicine as well), and by the time we got to the car he was feeling ok (phew!).   Amusingly we stopped for lunch at about the same spot as the day before. We spent a bit more time at the river before making it to the car just after 3.

So while the trip wasn't quite what I was hoping for - and quite funny that after waiting ages to get 3 days free to do it, we ended up doing it in two anyway - it was still really lovely.  It is a beautiful place and being able to spend the time there with my friends and family was lovely. I must say I feel great sadness that not everyone who would usually be there was there but that's just how things are.